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Voice interface for virtual area interaction

  • US 10,649,724 B2
  • Filed: 01/15/2016
  • Issued: 05/12/2020
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2009
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method in a network communications environment implemented by at least one server network node and supporting realtime communications between a user and one or more other communicants who are operating respective client network nodes and are co-present in any of multiple virtual locations of a virtual area that define different respective communication contexts in the network communications environment, the method comprising:

  • processing voice input from the user;

    calling one or more services associated with the network communications environment to perform operations comprisingdetecting in the processed voice input a navigation command in a fixed set of navigation commands each of which is associated with a respective syntax, wherein the fixed set of navigation commands comprises a look command and a find command, wherein in response to the user vocalizing the look command with no modifier causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who else is in the user'"'"'s current virtual location of presence in the virtual area and in response to the user vocalizing the look command with a specified virtual location in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of who is in the specified virtual location in the virtual area, wherein the user vocalizing the find command with a specified contact operand causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the current virtual location of the specified contact in the virtual area, and the user vocalizing the find command with a specified name of a meeting in the virtual area causes one of the services to send to the user a report of the virtual location of the meeting with the specified name in the virtual area, wherein the detecting comprises probabilistically scoring a set of navigation commands based on application of semantic rules that measure consistency of the navigation commands with the user'"'"'s current state or activity in the virtual area and, based on the scoring, selecting one of the navigation commands as the detected navigation command,ascertaining one or more operands based on the processed voice input and the syntax associated with the detected navigation command, wherein the ascertaining comprises selecting the one or more operands from one or more of names associated with respective ones of the virtual locations and names associated with respective ones of the communicants based on relationship data indicating one or more of whether the user is a member of any of the respective ones of the virtual locations and whether any of the respective ones of the communicants is a contact of the user, andproducing navigation results comprising navigating an attentional focus or state of the user from a current virtual location to another virtual location based on application of the detected navigation command to the one or more ascertained operands.

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